War of the Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused

TMBTM has crafted a genuinely unique and fascinating take on the original Star Wars. Using footage from various sources to reinsert alternate takes, deleted scenes and new music, the story that we all love has been transformed into a grungy, almost B grade, Grindhouse film.

The blood stained walls after a storm trooper is shot in the face, the funny subtitled dialogue from R2D2, the unexpected "fucking shit hole" from Alec Guinness, the red eyed and witty new dialogue from Darth Vader, all work in unison to create this weirdly funny and engaging experience.

I really loved the grain and scratches applied to the film, as well as the sudden changes to black and white for certain scenes, and while it was a bit jarring, the missing reel that burns out in the first act of the film really sells the authenticity of this edit. This doesn't feel like someone just added some grain and scratches to the movie and called it "Grindhouse"... No, no, this feels like a true Grindhouse film that you'd see in a grungy cheap cinema. I loved it!

The only real criticisms I have with this edit are:
- The music when Luke, Han, and Leia are fighting/escaping the Death Star that leads into the death of Obi Wan was a little misplaced. That's just a nitpick though, as the rest of the soundtrack is fantastic, especially when we're introduced to Han... That was amazing.

- and my final gripe with the edit is the end twist/semi twist. While it was cool and unexpected, it didn't really have any build up, it just sort of happened and then everything went back to normal and no-one acted any differently towards Luke. Obviously because there was no footage of characters acting strangely towards Luke but still. Again, this is just another nitpick so it didn't affect the overall experience/enjoyablity of the film.

Definitely recommend, for fans of the franchise, and fans of Grindhouse in general.

Nifty reworking of a classic viewed numerous. Edit incorporates plenty of ugly, deleted footage, making the experience greasier and dirtier. No disrespect intended. This is a snickering subversive retelling that takes its sweet time before slithering into broken territory.

Video - Decent 720p, MPEG 2. Outtakes were all crappy, with poor resolutions and bleached out colours. Editor TMBTM matched the look across the edit, so there was no jarring feature - bonus - feature - bonus recognition. The editor is too professional for his own nature, however, and transitions and edits were smooth and thought out.

Audio - 2 Channel, 448 Kb. Dialogue easy to understand. No subs - and yet - R2D2 is subbed throughout, and it proves to be one smart ass astrodroid. I also wondered about reinserted footage of storm troops on Tatooine. If redubbed, clever dialogue of poorly motivated workforce. The old saw about good help being hard to find applies.

Narrative - An altogether deceptive story that feints like an extended version, but midway begins to weave into a different direction. Having viewed the sequel first - lame, watching out of sequence - I can reassure uncertain readers that the modifications progress logically and bloom in the second installment.

Enjoyment - A lot of this is funny as hell. Storm troopers, who cannot shoot for shit in the original trilogy (Jango must have been rolling in his grave over nth generation clones) in this edit blast resistance left and right. Jawa haters, check this out. As noted, R2D2 is sees all, chatters away, but no one pays attention to him. Probably because he talks too much. A generous assortment of bonus goodies here, and you can’t beat Frances Gall (thank you for not going with the obvious ”Chick Habit”).

I suspect there may be purists who hate anyone tinkering with this installment, scratching at canon. Forget ‘em. This is a gaspipe kick. Go for it.

This edit was a blast! Every single change that TMBTM made to this movie was shocking and hilarious! Be prepared for some unexpected hilarious twists and turns in this grindhouse of the original Star Wars movie. Although I had low hopes going in, the grindhouse video quality and rescoring didn't bother me one bit. Be sure to check out the bonus features as well, they'll be worth your while.

I watched "War of the stars 2" just recently, so I was somewhat prepared for this.

---Spoiler-warning---
The intention was to downgrade the videoquality, ie. to grindhouse it, so that the deleted scenes could be integrated without sticking out. That goal was achieved perfectly! It looks really awful through and through and everything looked natural in its awfulness!

But I can't say I'm a fan of grindhousing, the videoquality is already flat due to being SD-sourced, and the grindhousing further knocked the quality down obviously.

"War of the stars 2" did without the grindhousing-effect and in retrospect I'm thankful for that:).

That said, the grindhousing helped in a moment where TMBTM made a jump in the narrative, which I thought to be a great idea, by making it look like the film was burned out. Loved that.

Like in the second part I love the new special effects, like the blood and Vader's red eyes, or the new shooting of the sandpeople's wagon.

I also love the new music introduced, especially in the new Mos-eisley-bar-scene.

Narratively I like that it was made like it were a single movie, it all ends with the death star being blown up and Vader killed by Han. It made perfect sense as the emperor was not mentioned, so it could stand alone.

Of course it poses the question, why "War of the stars 2" exists? But I'm glad it exists, cause I think it's superior in most ways.

But back to this edit: I loved two subtitle-lines by R2D2: "Oh, God is he old", when Obi Wan said he wouldn't remember a droid, lol! And "Maybe they need gold" when C3PO asked what the jabbas wanted with them.

---Spoiler-warning-end---

Great edit, achieved what it wanted and tells the story of Star Wars in a single movie and is therefore highly recommended!
Still, I very much prefer "War of the stars 2", that gets along, without the grindhousing and offers many more awesome creative special-effect-use and offers more creative narration-choices.

I only wish the film had been edited more. There were moments that were sheer genius, like the binary sunset, Obiwan and the trash compacter, and Biggs's death. I wish there'd have been more fake blood. I also wish the Darth Vader dialogue had been better integrated. And the premise behind Biggs's death should have been taken further, because it was genius. And I literally spat coffee on my computer screen from laughing too hard when the song from the Christmas Special began. Overall, it was really fun. Can't wait to watch the next one (which is downloading right now).